Yeah, right after I posted, they put up the February numbers. They should have March out too though.

The flyover isn't so bad, that is if all the redevelopment comes into fruition.

From the youtube videos it looks like they've done work to minimize impact compared to the original list of affected buildings

The Flyover looks more appropriate at O'Hare rather than in an old line urban neighborhood. The design is cookie cutter super highway crap.

Why not elegantly elevate the red line up another level ,stations and all, for long enough to allow the brown line to split off in it's current footprint.

If we are going to spend a half billion anyway why not go all out and spend some more in order to forget this flyover crap and make the Brown line run southeast under Clark Street or Lincoln Ave (which would close the Brown Line Paulina station but that is it). Let the Purple Line take over all Brown Line stops from Belmont on South. A man can dream.

:tup: That would be the perfect solution, submerge it after the fullerton stop but will never happen of course...

Because that would require rebuilding Belmont as a two-level station, push Addison way up in the air, and probably require closing the Red Line for months.

As a Chicagoan transplanted to DC, I can attest that one thing I miss about CTA is the minimal sidewalk-to-platform travel time.

^ Also, you'd have to build three tracks at the higher elevation to get the same benefit. Otherwise outbound Brown trains still conflict with inbound Purple.

IF they just HAVE to build a flyover, I think the construction designs presented (especially the supports) are WAY overbuilt, like a 1930's Russian Comrades Heavy-Duty Mine Ore RR.: http://bullseye-prod.aggrego.org//wp...zUm3mKFaPa4%3D ; or a bridge to support a canal carrying Ships over a local River: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...swxqbz8DCiIq6A Plus they have a big concrete box beneath the Brown Line rails carrying all the weight of the stucture, to signifcantly increase the final needed height to be attained.


These images of the Pink Line along S. Paulina Ave. illustrate a MUCH lighter and less costly structural system,that would be MUCH less intrusive to the neighborhood; and clearly show at 15th and Paulina how the Pink Line crosses over the BNSF/UP lines in a through-girder bridge only inches above the freight trains' roofs (without adding those additional feet like a box girder), you can even move the camera under the "L" to see the lighter-weight structure in close detail:

16th & Paulina: https://www.google.com/maps/place/S+...0d39b0!6m1!1e1

1725 W. Hastings: https://www.google.com/maps/place/17...830379!6m1!1e1

15th & Paulina: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8612...Yg!2e0!6m1!1e1

Monroe/Wabash
 

Note the Pink Line tracks don't have any soundproofing. That's because the previous Pink Line tracks didn't have any, and the concrete supports don't generate as much sound as the former steel structure, so they could get away with saying it would improve sound without doing full sound remediation.

However in Lakeview, the structure will be taller and it will be new, and the neighbors are richer and better connected, so doing more to absorb sound is called for. Plus, part of the reason the Pink Lines looks the way it does, apart from the reasons I've listed, is that they re-used part of the structure there. For the flyover, it is all new.

that said, I don't think it will be imposing at all. Yes, I think that Paris example would be cool, but I think the Belmont flyover will be fine.

June 10th CTA Board of Directors Meeting
 

Ellen Hughes of the Stop the Flyover Coalition, and Mike Payne of the CTA Gray Line Project, along with others opposed to the Flyover concept — will be addressing the June 10th, 2015 CTA Board of Directors Meeting, and incoming CTA President Dorval Carter.
10am, 2nd flr. Boardroom, CTA Headquarters, Desplaines & Lake (one block west of the Clinton Green/Pink Line Stop). Please attend if you can!

http://stopbelmontflyover.com/ http://www.civicartworks.com/project...opular&phase=1

Chicago surveys fliers as Rahm's rhetoric on O'Hare express train heats up
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...mn.html#page=1

May 31, 2015

The CTA and the city of Chicago are surveying thousands of passengers who use O'Hare International Airport to learn more about their trips, focusing on how people commute to and from the airport.

The $280,000 survey that runs through June asks how people access the airport — options include personal or rental car, taxicab, limousine, ride-hailing services like Uber X or public transit — and whether they use the parking garage, economy lots or People Mover transit system. It even asks even how many bags they tote onto planes.....

They could have spent that 280 grand to fix the escalator they left broken at the CTA Ohare station for a year....that would have saved some time on my commute!

They supposedly got started on it this spring....though I have yet to see any evidence of that in my frequent use of the station. Kind of embarrassing that it's going to probably take over two years to accomplish.

I find it hard to endorse any further train proposal (short of CrossRail) given the limited time benefits and probable cost. I'd be grateful if Chicago mayors would stop chasing after this particular mirage.

The entire rail infrastructure and Metra equipment already exists to start running a Metra CUS-O'Hare Express tomorrow if they wanted to!

BUT this is after all - Chicago; and something like this CAN NOT be done basically, without Millions being spent first on "studies", overplanning, and somebody has to make many more Millions constructing some spectacular spectacular new "Signature Project" transit infrastructure. ("Ohhh, Ahhhh")

Yes, I also cannot believe that people wouldn't clamor for a less convenient yet more expensive option that saves little to no time over the blue line.

The Metra solution is really not a preferred model considering how far from the terminals it would drop people. An ideal solution would probably have stations at McCormick Place, near Millennium Park, between Union Station and Ogilvey (or just one in either the Loop or West Loop - I like the idea of two, but one would be cheaper and simpler to operate), Terminal 5, and the main terminals at O'Hare, with the distance between Millennium Park and O'Hare traveling through a deep tunnel similar to the Deep Tunnel drainage system. The tunnel could travel beneath the existing subway tunnels and then from the West Loop could travel a straight line to O'Hare. A deep tunnel like that would be relatively cheap compared to a more conventional tunnel or elevated structure, and allow dedicated ROW for at least the longest portion of the trip.

Doing a deep tunnel like that under the Loop would save the existing Block 37 proto-station for cross-connections between Lake (would require completion of the western portal of the Milwaukee branch) or Milwaukee and the south Green Line, Dan Ryan or Orange Line, with the South Loop portals, which I think will eventually prove useful.

^

You'd still need to include all the required life safety stuff (ventilation, fire protection, evacuation, communication, etc) which drives the price up so it won't be nearly as cheap as Deep Tunnel. Regardless I don't think any further expenditure is really justified unless it's tied in with a larger set of improvement for a much broader rider base like CrossRail proposes to do.

Using the current NCS is an idea that's going nowhere fast based on what I've seen of the CONRAC designs. There is no reason for me to spend 10-20 minutes using the ATS to get out there, walk god knows what terrible route through the garage, then wait for an express train when I can be on the blue line in 5.

O'Hare needs a lot of other work done before an express train should be a priority.

Isn't all that stuff part of the existing NCS operation, it can't be operating without it, can it? The ATS definitely needs to be moved adjacent to the rail line, and not a block away through the garage. I would pay more, and wait for a limited or non-stop ride downtown into CUS.

For 8 months during 2006, I WAS ONE OF those Homeless living on the Blue Line (due to unemployment); I just love how people treat you like you are WORTHLESS FUCKING SHIT when you are down (I was MADE to understand that QUITE clearly -- the WORTHLESS part), but I guess that's just how it is, isn't it?